"John Hofstad-Parkhill" writes:

Greg:

I have proven to myself time & time again that I must walk before I can
crawl. My journey started with an 8" craftsman "table saw" to the 3hp
Powermatic 66. With several models between those two.

Ultimately it's likely you'll spend more on tooling than on the machinery.
But getting there is what's fun.

I'm graduating from an Atlas 6", and learned something about how much
better a heavier lathe is while working on my dad's SB 9. I got a
good price for my SB, intendending to make up the balance with the
tooling.


I nearly purchased an omnipost (I am susceptible to marketing, particularly
if it contains the words "professional" or "industrial"). However, I
purchased the import AXA toolpost set, the Aloris clone. My steps this time
were - Home made AL block tool post for my Taig Lathe, a 4-tool turret tool
post for the Dalton 6 and eventually the AXA set. I still have the AXA set,
I've purchased more tool holders - when they're on sale they're fairly
inexpensive, and I've made my own. They go on sale fairly frequently. And
they are the subject of much bandwidth here, the piston -vs- wedge issues
come up regularly.

I bought my dad the KRF Omnipost for christmas and its a Vast
improvement over the lantern holder. I'm sure there are tradeoffs
with the Omnipost, but I'm sure not going to stick only with the
lantern when the Omnipost is reasonably priced for a complete kit.


If your chuck is mounted on a back plate, it is standard practice to true
the back plate on the lathe it will be used. It was one of my first
operations for my South Bend 10K, so skill level is moderate, patience is a
virtue.

One of the best things you can do is to lurk here. The signal to noise ratio
is usually fairly good, and there is always a good mix of subjects.


Yep.

Gregm